Best of Egyptian Media Propaganda

February 20th, 2011 Rowan El Shimi

One the many failures of the Egyptian regime has been its state media. Never mind that we have press laws that restrict the freedom of the independent (or rather striving to be independent) media. The state owned media, and it’s private extentions such as the Mehwar Channel, were completely used as propaganda machines telling lies to the Egyptian public. As this was just the norm, only the very extreme cases of ridiculousness stood out. Here are the awards for the most “creative” ones the government tried to pass in my opinion:

This was the hilarious guy who allegedly just escaped from the vicious place of Tahrir Square where everyone speaks English and get them to make flyers. He cries that the people in Tahrir are not “us”. He has a fear of slogans, and suffers from some sort of breathing disorder. The anchor is pretending to be really concerned and can’t believe the ordeal this kid went through.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcq7c8onHg&w=480&h=390]

– The “They are all gay and humping” guy on Masriya TV

This guy is one of the protesters who was inside. Claims there are tents, blankets and meals for everyone. He refers to the fact that there are religious preachers inside brainwashing people and that the opposition groups and Muslim Brotherhood are riding the wave of the 25 of Jan youth. Apparently all the people in Tahrir Square still fighting for our rights are cowards and he’s the hero. He starts by saying people are gay there. The presenter pretends to try to stop him from making judgements, then talks about how Suleiman is awesome and is meeting with the Jan 25 youth. Oh yeah, the regular favourites of course: Foreigners are trying to cause chaos, protests are causing the country to be at a hault and the government is changing everything over night into a full on democracy because life is pink.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6QvERFSw-Y&w=480&h=390]

– The “Aljazeera, the Jews and Pandas are training Egyptian youth to cause chaos” on Mehwer TV

Who can forget the beautiful Shaimaa, who we couldn’t really see for her own safety of course, who told us about her paid trips to the US where she was trained on “How to overthrow dictators”. Apparently she also recieved a second training in Qatar, delivered by Israelis (Aljazeera and the Jews in one combo, nice ha?). She insists (by saying it 5 times) that she was trained along side the Muslim Brotherhood Youth movement. Blame the foreigners! All the foreigners are conspiring against us, because we’re well, awesome.

Who is prosecuting those two journalists and everyone involved in Mehwer TV? I’d like to know.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlh_U-p7Qno&w=480&h=390]

– The “Mubarak is our father and Foreigners are conspiring against us” on Mehwar TV

This one is a political activist who apparently received training all over the world with an organisation that is American-Israeli-Zionist working with the CIA and Mosaad (who else?). According to this one they were training them on how to peacefully bring down a regime by burning government buildings and scaring the police force. Of course she now changed her mind and joined the three million pro-Mubarak protesters (haha) telling Mubarak “We are sorry ya Baba”. Oh yeah, and all the Egyptian youth political movements are working with Hamas.

Favourite quote by the presenters “Egypt is not Tunisia, and Mubarak is not Ben Ali”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiCJaVxvpc8&w=480&h=390]

So the Egyptian government attempted to blame: The Muslim Brotherhood, political opposition parties, Mosaad, The US, Iran, Hamas, Qatar, Aljazeera and according to Egypt’s most trusted news source El Koshary Today: Koala bears. But themselves and their corruption, brutality and inhumane detentions for causing the first grassroots revolution in the history of the country, no way.

Then suddenly, with a magic wand, Egyptian TV suddenly calls the protesters “heroes” not zionist brainwashed crazy people and reports on the millions in Tahrir. They had to do that after Wael Ghoneim, one of the people who started a grass-roots initative on January 25th was released and appeared on Dream TV telling the story of his 12 day detention along with how him and a few youth raising awareness about the Khaled Said case called for the protests on January 25th. Also, when two Senior reporters from Nile TV quit and went on air with inside information about the “Propaganda Machine”. When the public that they were trying to hide the truth from understood their lies, they needed to change their tone, agenda and content to attempt to prove they are credible. Too late though.

Let’s not forget, that the media is still under the Ministry of Media, which is part of the regime. Even if Mubarak is not there, even if Anas El Fekki, the minister of Media, resigned, this institution is full of so much corruption and personal agendas that even if they changed their stance, it does not mean we should trust them. We will not trust our media until it is cleaned of the corruption of many of those inside it and till it is an independent institution not bound by press laws or under any governmental supervision. We are at a crucial point where we need to question everything, until we live in a democratic, just country with honest media.